A Handbook to Agra and the Taj eBook

SURAJ-BHAN-KA BAGH.—­This is another two-storied
building of about the same period, but not quite so
fine in style, facing the Agra road, at a little distance
from the Kanch Mahal.

MARIAM ZAMANI’S TOMB.—­A short distance
further on, in the direction of Muttra, is the building
supposed to have been originally the garden house
of Sikandar Lodi, in which Mariam Zamani, one of Akbar’s
wives, is said to have been buried. It has been
used for many years as a printing establishment for
a Mission Orphanage.

Other Buildings and Tombs at or near Agra

The tomb of Feroz Khan, opposite to the third milestone
on the Gwalior road, is an interesting building of
Akbar’s time, richly carved and decorated with
tile-work. Close by is the tomb of the Pahalwari,
where a celebrated wrestler of Shah Jahan’s time
is buried. There are a considerable number of
buildings and numerous ruins in Agra, and round about,
which possess only historical or archaeological interest.
In the town are the following:—­

The KALI MASJID, or Black Mosque, otherwise called
the Kalan Masjid, or Grand Mosque, is of the early
Akbar style. It was built by the father of Shah
Jahan’s first wife, the Kandahari Begum.
This is near to the Government dispensary.

In the Nai-ki-Mundi quarter is the mosque of Shah
Ala-ud-din Majzub, commonly known as ALAWAL BILAWAL,
a saint who lived at the time of Shere Shah.
He established a school of Muhammadan law, and founded
a monastery besides the mosque. The accumulations
round the mosque have reached up to the springing
of the arches, and tradition accounts for this by
the following story: A camel-driver in Shere Shah’s
service stabled his beasts in the mosque, in spite
of the protests of the saint Thereupon the building
began to sink into the ground, and did not cease descending
until the camels and their driver were crushed to death.

The HAMMAN, or Baths of Ali Verdi Khan, in Chipitolla
Street, built in the time of Jahangir. An inscription
over the gateway gives the date, 1620 A.D. They
cannot be compared in interest with the splendid “Hakim’s
Baths,” at Fatehpur Sikri.

The ROMAN CATHOLIC CEMETERY, in the quarter known
as Padritollah, near the Law Courts, is one of the
most ancient Christian cemeteries in India. The
ground was granted to the mission by the Emperor Akbar.
There are a number of Portuguese and Armenian tombs
dating from early in the seventeenth century.
It also contains the tomb of the notorious Walter
Reinhardt, or Samru, as he was called, the founder
of the principality of Sirdhana, whose history is given
at p. 38. The Dutch General Messing, who held
Agra Fort for the Mahrattas in 1794, has a very florid
mausoleum of red sandstone, more curious than beautiful;
the design of which is in imitation of the Taj.